Search results

The original game (AD&D first edition) actually had names for the classes at each level with a bit of an expectation that very high level characters would get involved with building keeps or politics or running a church. Raise Dead (with serious limitations) was a 5th levels spell that was not...

I think that this time period had a number of very good modules that were easy to adapt to local groups. Most of my early D&D experience had a heavy influence of medules and they were very popular in my experience up until second edition; 2E seemed to be the era of sandbox campaigns and I saw...

Steven Brust was a fantasy author who did an extremely good job of demonstrating the sort of implications that it would have on a society for death to be reversible. Of course, the most immediate reaction was an attempt to make death permanent in ways that spells could not reverse.

It is a pretty good book and well worth the read. I was surprised at the quality and the attention to detail made Medieval England come alive. However, I was a little unclear (given that the entire novel occurs in September 1262) why the month and year were at the top of every chapter. :)

Even cooler, the past had the traditional high fantasy elves making the current version feel . . . tragic. Elves are all about the loss of greatness and what it was to once be mighty. I thought it was a very effective shift of a classic fantasy trope.

That is what I would hope would be the net result of the system (poor characters with a cool goal of keeping a ship running). Players would gladly pour money into Mal's dream of being indepedent and having a ship to fly (even if it might be cheaper, strictly speaking, to travel around in as a...

Obviously, this approach is not appropriate to all campaigns. It is true that it won't work especially well in recent editions that make strong wealth by level assumptions. But, in some versions of the game (BECMI, 1E, 2E), this approach can be used to create out of dungeon interests (which...

I would intelligent opponents acting the way average poeple would in a world where the rules were different. Let's consdier the sleep spell to be equivalent to carrying around a grenade. If wheezing Jimmy is carrying a grenade than modern folks would see him as the primary threat. Similarily...

Protecting a non-replaceable book is one of the better reasons to use a retro-clone. In my experience, all of the retroclones seem to make some decisions that are different but the tweaks tend to be ones of style more than anything else. Older school D&D was very flexible to house rules and a...

Yes, that would be the more modern (quest-based) experience system. It has some real advantages, I would freely admit. However, the XP for GP spent doesn't mean that you don't get XP for establishing the school -- merely that loot generates experience. Clever shortcuts can help but this...

The Rules Cyclopedia isn't all of that expensive if you are disciplined in looking for a copy and was an amazingly complete set of rules. In more recent days, while quite expensive, Lamentation of the Flame Princess is pretty interesting as an option.

I think the point of this system is to force the players to decide what it is that they want to do in the world. That way they can spend their loot on doign the things that matter to them. So building a stronghold counts. As does establishing a fencing school. Or being like Conan and...

I saw one of my players use it last week and it was a really impressive class. The healing judgment was extremely effective against goblins (they were playing Rise of the Runelords and they were fighting a large group of goblins). In a lot of ways the Inquisitor made a really useful ground for...

Yeah, it was kind of a surprising rename of the forum but maybe Torphies has some meaning that I'm missing?

I am not as familiar with Dragons at Dawn, but in AD&D did they not have a training rule that would have limited the levels gained to one (due to training requirements)?

A Paladin in Citadel has an interesting post on how experience points were awarded in the pre-D&D proto-RPG of Arneson. In particular: "In the fantasy game originally played by Arneson, it was primarily through the recovery, and appropriate expenditure, of long-lost treasure hoards, that...

I think one of the biggest table to table variations in 3.0/3.5/PF is how important skills are. Those groups whose still de-emphasized them all seem to see the 3.0/3.5 rogue as systemically underpowered. On the other hand, if one does a lot with skills then PF rogues do look awful nice . . .

What is the alternative business approach that they are focusing on?

In my experience (although play variability with AD&D is large) this is correct but in a positive sense. The quarterback is crucual but casting a spell during combat is always a nerve-wracking experience (due to the spell interuption rules and never knowing what your initiative order is going...